“University of Ground Fighting is hands down the best martial arts academy in the southwest suburbs! Coach Steve is extremely knowledgeable, patient, and does his absolute best to tailor his gym to meet the needs of all of his students! Whether you are seeking to better yourself in the area of self defense or looking to be a great competitor, University of Ground Fighting is the place to go! I just so happened to stumble upon UofGF more than 6 years ago desperately looking for something for my daughter to be passionate about and today, 2 of my daughters and myself all train there regularly! Best decision I've ever made for all of us & we now have a whole gym full of "family" who help us become better versions of ourselves everyday. I honestly can't say enough good things about coach Steve & the environment he creates at his gym.” -April

“I had my son join UOGF at a young age (3-4). He didn’t stick with it long term, but enjoyed learning from coach Steve. Never heard him yell once. Yes, young kids get distracted and need the appropriate attention. Would not even hesitate to bring my son back here to train if he wanted to get back into it. Coaches are there to mold athletes and bring the very best out of each athlete. By far the one of the best coaches in the business and definitely the best in our area.” -Chris

“My son learned hard work pays off. Nothing came easy to him and he had to earn every inch of a match.  He lost to great competition and Steve taught him to be the best face the best. After years of training and growing he was 12 competing in the adult division just to face obstacles of strength he didn't have yet. A few adult competitors didn't want to face a kid in fear of hurting him, which we understood. He would lose more of those matches than not, but forced him to get better technically.  Life lessons of failure and knowing it was ok to grow from it turned him into the young man he is today.  He is a professional bull rider now and came from no experience.  Just as he and I had no experience in jiu-jitsu he already knew that he can become great at anything if he was determined.  Now a suburban kid is riding all over the country in the PBR. When asked how he did it with no family experience in rodeo he says that if you want something bad enough you put in the work.  Guess where he was taught that? On the mat.

   As far as speeches or yelling goes if you know me well I would say he was soft at times and let kids have fun, but when they were getting over the limit he brought them back in by being stern and expecting respect.  Life lessons are taught in sports.  If a coach yelling or setting rules and expectations is unacceptable to a parent that child will likely need help learning to respect authority in life.  Be it another coach , teacher, or boss at work.  Whether you agree with them or not they set the expectations.  If you want to succeed in that situation you learn how to deal with it.  If you don't you will be failing with a lot of aspects of life.  That is where entitled people are formed.  Let your kid fail. Let coaches, teachers ride them and they will learn what expectations are. Also they learn that someone believes that they are better than they think of themselves which enables kids to grow to greater things they never thought they could do.  So keep pushing kids to greatness and you will have much more than just amazing jiu-jitsu students, you help create great adults of the future.” -Mike